1. Polare, Maastricht, Holland This C13th Dominican church became an ornate, classy bookshop. Converted in 2006 by architects Merk X, Polare is a temple of books that raises reading to a religious experience. The 3 storey bookshelf, with staircases, elevators and walkways, is massive.
2. First built as the Teatro Grand Splendid in 1919, then a cinema in 1929, Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires in Argentina appeals to the dramatic reader. With frescoed ceilings, ornate carvings and plush crimson stage curtains, it has its original glamour; customers can sit in the theatre boxes which operate as reading rooms.
Ateneo Grand Splendid, Buenos Aires
4. China’s most beautiful bookshop, Librairie Avant-Garde in Nanjing was built inside a former government carpark. To find their way into the 4,000 sq m Wutishan Stadium’s underground space, visitors follow a yellow-striped road; inside, a replica of Rodin’s “The Thinker” decorates a cash-till made out of old books, and pillars with famous literary verses carved into them.
5. Libreria El Pendulo, Mexico City offers a cultivated way to avoid Mexico’s heat. Customers can scan shelves spanning two storeys. Besides browsing through the shelves, visitors can enjoy stand-up comedy or can listen to live music at the café-cum-bookshop.
6. Livraria Lello e Irmao, Porto, Portugal opened in the former Chardron Library in 1906. Its Art Nouveau space was dominated by a curving staircase with ornate wooden carvings, intricate wall panels and columns. Stained glass windows and a skylight, showing the monogram of the shop’s founder José Lello, add to the churchlike appearance. It featured several times in the Harry Potter series.
7. Bart’s bookstore, Ojai, California A great outdoor facility was set up in 1964 by Richard Bartinsdale who left street-side book cases to sell unwanted titles. Visitors left money in a tin. Now, the shop has a million books, many of which are still sold through an honour system, as well as a courtyard
7. Bart’s bookstore, Ojai, California A great outdoor facility was set up in 1964 by Richard Bartinsdale who left street-side book cases to sell unwanted titles. Visitors left money in a tin. Now, the shop has a million books, many of which are still sold through an honour system, as well as a courtyard
& apple trees for chess-players.
Munro's Books, Victoria, British Columbia
8. Book Now, Bendigo, Australia Old books are packed tightly onto shelves, laid on tables and categorised into little alcoves; timber floorboards and stairs lead up to a book-filled mezzanine. The 60,000 pre-loved books, specialising in Australian literature and history, are housed in a rural Victorian building.
9. Honesty Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye, Wales is a centre for bibliophiles. 30+ bookshops line the narrow streets, the most striking being a set of shelves around the town’s Norman castle. Customers admire crumbling Medieval architecture while perusing second-hand titles; all proceeds go to the castle restoration.
10. Built in the early C17th, the Paris building was originally a French monastery, La Maison du Mustier. Sylvia Beach was an American bookseller who moved to Paris and founded the original Shakespeare & Company Paris in 1919. Her bookshop was frequented by Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce in the 1920s. And it was where Beach published James Joyce's controversial book, Ulysses (1922).
American George Whitman opened his new Le Mistral bookshop in 1951 at a different part of Paris, renamed Shakespeare and Company in 1964 in honour of the late Sylvia Beach. It was a gathering place for expat and Beat Generation writers like Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Stein, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and James Baldwin. Whitman even allowed impoverished artists and writers to sleep on small beds that doubled as benches in the day, and to borrow his English language literature books. A sense of community was very important; he referred to his shop as a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookshop.
In 2002 George’s daughter Sylvia Whitman returned to Paris to spend time with her elderly father in his book-kingdom; she introduced the first literary festival in June 2003.
11. Munro’s Books, Victoria, Canada. In 1963, Jim and Alice Munro set up shop in a long, narrow space on Yates Street, near Victoria's cinemas. Proper book shops were rare then, but the location was convenient for younger cinema goers, and the staff's interest in new writing trends built a loyal clientele. The shop relocated to larger premises on Fort Street in 1979 and then located in the centre of Victoria’s Old Town location since 1984.
The fine neo-classical Old Town building was first designed for the Royal Bank of Canada in 1909 by Thomas Hooper, architect of many provincial commercial & public buildings. The beautiful coffered high ceiling resembled the porch ceiling of the great C2nd library of Ephesus. Jim Munro restored the building to its former glory, with its heritage architecture and striking artwork.
12. The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland is the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland, with 2 ks of shelving supporting 100,000 books. In 1998 Wigtown was designated Scotland's National Book Town and this has led to a general revival in town, with many buildings refurbished and new businesses opening. The former Customs House and Bank is now home to another of Wigtown's book shops, The Old Bank Bookshop, has five large rooms to browse through.
9. Honesty Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye, Wales is a centre for bibliophiles. 30+ bookshops line the narrow streets, the most striking being a set of shelves around the town’s Norman castle. Customers admire crumbling Medieval architecture while perusing second-hand titles; all proceeds go to the castle restoration.
10. Built in the early C17th, the Paris building was originally a French monastery, La Maison du Mustier. Sylvia Beach was an American bookseller who moved to Paris and founded the original Shakespeare & Company Paris in 1919. Her bookshop was frequented by Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway and James Joyce in the 1920s. And it was where Beach published James Joyce's controversial book, Ulysses (1922).
American George Whitman opened his new Le Mistral bookshop in 1951 at a different part of Paris, renamed Shakespeare and Company in 1964 in honour of the late Sylvia Beach. It was a gathering place for expat and Beat Generation writers like Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Stein, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell and James Baldwin. Whitman even allowed impoverished artists and writers to sleep on small beds that doubled as benches in the day, and to borrow his English language literature books. A sense of community was very important; he referred to his shop as a socialist utopia masquerading as a bookshop.
In 2002 George’s daughter Sylvia Whitman returned to Paris to spend time with her elderly father in his book-kingdom; she introduced the first literary festival in June 2003.
Polare, Maastricht
The fine neo-classical Old Town building was first designed for the Royal Bank of Canada in 1909 by Thomas Hooper, architect of many provincial commercial & public buildings. The beautiful coffered high ceiling resembled the porch ceiling of the great C2nd library of Ephesus. Jim Munro restored the building to its former glory, with its heritage architecture and striking artwork.
12. The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland is the largest second-hand bookshop in Scotland, with 2 ks of shelving supporting 100,000 books. In 1998 Wigtown was designated Scotland's National Book Town and this has led to a general revival in town, with many buildings refurbished and new businesses opening. The former Customs House and Bank is now home to another of Wigtown's book shops, The Old Bank Bookshop, has five large rooms to browse through.
Book Now bookshop, Bendigo
in C19th wine and spirit merchants' premises
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22 comments:
The Little Prince in Tel Aviv is the best bookshop. Not only is the English Literature section wonderful. The espresso coffees are even better. What more could a bookworm ask for?
Hello Hels, How I would like to spend a day in each of these bookshops! There are many magnificent old theaters, churches, banks, etc. that are perfect for such conversions. Most of the ones you mention are pretty large, but small bookshops can have a stronger stamp of their owner's personality, and if you are interested in their specialty they might prove quite fruitful.
Many of my favorite used bookshops are not quite so architecturally dramatic, but while exploring their mazes of improvised shelving, who knows what marvels might pop up? Unfortunately, most used bookshops have disappeared, and I mostly buy from the internet these days.
--Jim
I like the sound of the one in Buenos Aires. I love a bookshop for browsing but I tend to buy books from charity shops or borrow from the library.
I am so addicted to bookshops and to buying books that I try not to go in these days! There is a kind of magic that is unique to those places. I was recently in the lovely town of Letchworth, Hertfordshire and came across a fabulous book shop with a poet-in-residence; had to buy (at least!) one of his books naturally!
There is now a Foyles in the Westfield by the Olympic Park in East London - heaven!
CLICK HERE for Bazza’s accidentally adept Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Joseph
I think Tel Aviv must be one of the cultural centres of the northern hemisphere, so I am not surprised that the city has great bookshops that specialise in English Literature etc. Thank you for the espresso recommendation in particular :)
Parnassus
I buy most of my books at a site within a few ks from my house. It has an excellent range of books but it is like shopping for baked beans in a super market - one long, narrow aisle with shelves loaded up on each side. To avoid bumping into other customers, I shop quickly, pay and get out.
The old theatres etc are certainly over-the-top, but the readers have plenty of space, time and comfort to enjoy the event.
Good to include an Australian bookshop but it is in rather exalted company. The Buenos Aires one looks brilliant.
Fun60
Teatro Grand Splendid must have been fantastic, when it was opened in 1919. It still looks very ornate today!
If I ever visit Buenos Aires, I will sit and read in one of the theatre boxes, and pretend I was a wealthy, cultivated Argentinian from the 1920s.
bazza
when we lived in St Albans years ago, I got to know Letchworth rather well. The biggest impact on me then was falling in love with the concept of a Garden City - go Ebenezer Howard!!
Don't stop going to great bookshops. If you have to choose between food, clothes or books, go without food and clothes :)
Andrew
I realise that Bendigo doesn't quite measure up to Hay-on-Wye etc, but I lived in the city for two years and really loved the gold rush history and architecture. Book Now's collection is spectacular.
Several bookshops in Melbourne that I loved have closed down over the years, including my favourite, Collected Works, in the beautiful old Nicholas Building. A secondhand bookshop on Flinders Street where I bought many folklore books went some years ago. I am rather fond of the Avenue Bookshop in Elsternwick which is on the site of what used to be Sunflower Books. There are lovely wooden shelves and there is light. Sunflower had gone downhill over the years and been painted charcoal grey. But both shops have had very good children’s collections and specialise in Judaica.
When I was living in Israel, way back in the 80s, you bought new books at Steimatzky’s, the Israeli version of Dymock’s or Borders, but I found some wonderful secondhand shops both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and bought old science fiction magazines. It was amazing what you found there.
And then there was Autumn Leaves in St Kilda, a secondhand shop I’m delighted to have discovered, because that was where I first met my lovely publisher Paul Collins, who was running it at the time, before he went full time into writing and publishing. :-)
Good to see you, Hel
Shakespeare & Co may not have the best facilities, but it has the most fascinating history.
Sue
how sad is it that all our favourite old bookshops are either closed or are less appealing than they used to be. I hope it is because people are buying books on-line, and not because people aren't reading hard copy books, academic journals or newspapers any longer.
There are still some welcoming bookshops in Chapel St, Lygon St etc. For Melbourne readers, the most useful guide might be: "The best bookshops in Melbourne", https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/shopping/the-best-bookshops-in-melbourne
Train Man
Shakespeare and Company must have supported every brilliant but impoverished ex-pat writer and artist who lived in Paris in the Inter-War and post WW2 era. Great for the writers and artists, and for the other culture-fans who loved the shop, but probably not so financially successful for the owners - Sylvia Beach and then George Whitman.
I love a good bookshop to browse around.
I remember the outdoor bookstore at Ojai. I've always wanted to return. The one at Hay is a bit crummy, I always think, the books are not that good because they're not really protected from the weather. These days I think I prefer new to second hand bookstores. I never thought I'd say that.
CherryPie
Our lives are normally so rushed, browsing in a leisurely manner in a bookshop might be one of the few self-indulgent pleasures still to be had. And no iPhones or iPads involved :)
Jenny
Ojai California can reasonably expect stable, dry weather for half a year such that outdoor book stands are reasonably safe. The other half of the year I would be taking the books inside or putting weatherproofing over the book stands. Hay on Wye, less predictable dry weather.
The new versus used book dilemma is more problematic. I still prefer pre-loved bookshops, but as we get older, they seem more chaotic.
Z`ssx
thanks for popping in. Which is your favourite bookshop?
Hi Hels - I managed to get into Munro's when over in Canada - the others I haven't visited - yes Foyles in London in the early days. I want to go to Daunt's bookshop, Marylebone - which I want to write up about ... sometime! I'll be back to peruse a bit more at leisure ... cheers for now - Hilary
Hilary
Good on you for mentioning Munro's. My late mother's cousins lived in Winnipeg so we went to Canada every three years for family reunions. After one reunion, we were relaxing in Vancouver when somebody suggested a visit to Victoria. Totally unplanned, of course, but Munro's turned out to be a delightful bookshop.
I will try and find an image of the very special entrance into Munro's, to add to the post.
I have just added a detailed look at Livraria Lello bookshop, in Porto. It is a beautiful example of architecture, decorative art and literature.
The gorgeous Livraria Lello bookshop, in Porto Portugal
https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-gorgeous-livraria-lello-bookshop-in.html
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